Wireless communication systems are constantly evolving. System designers are continually developing greater numbers of features for both service providers as well as for the end users. In the area of wireless phone systems, cellular based phone systems have advanced tremendously in recent years. Wireless phone systems are available based on a variety of modulation techniques and are capable of using a number of allocated frequency bands. Available modulation schemes include analog FM and digital modulation schemes using Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Each scheme has inherent advantages and disadvantages relating to system architecture, frequency reuse, and communications quality. However, the features the manufacturer offers to the service provider and which the service provider offers to the consumer are similar between the different wireless systems.
Typically, a mobile terminal such as a cell phone may have a plurality of different alerting modes such as silent/meeting mode (i.e. a mode in which the phone does not ring or vibrate), vibrate mode, and ring mode. The ring mode may also be a vibrate and ring mode.
There are times when a mobile terminal user will put a mobile terminal in a silence/meeting mode and then forget to change the silent/meeting mode back to the ring mode and/or vibrate mode. In the mean time a caller keeps trying to get in touch with the mobile terminal user (perhaps for an emergency). However, because the mobile terminal is still in the silent/meeting mode, the mobile terminal user does not know to answer the call.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system in which a mobile terminal in a silent/meeting mode may be placed into a vibrate and/or ring mode when a calling party needs to contact the mobile terminal.